NIH Director's Seminar: Assessing thyroid cancer causes and treatment effects in an era of overdiagnosis

Friday, February 7, 2025, 12:00 to 1:00pm

Wilson Hall, NIH Building 1; and NIH videocast

The fifth lecture lecture in the 2024-2025 NIH Director's Seminar Series will be presented by IRP senior investigator Cari Kitahara, Ph.D.

For decades, the incidence of thyroid cancer increased rapidly in the U.S. and worldwide. Increased diagnostic scrutiny ('overdiagnosis') has been established as the main factor underlying the steep rise in small, localized ('low-risk') papillary thyroid cancers, although lifestyle or environmental causes may have played a more minor role. Coinciding with rising incidence trends, an increasing proportion of low-risk thyroid cancers in the U.S. received more aggressive treatments, including total thyroidectomy and radioactive iodine ablation, raising concerns about treatment-related adverse effects and quality of life. In this talk, Dr. Kitahara will discuss the results of her research aiming to understand changes in thyroid cancer incidence trends and clinical management, as well as the impact of these changes on short- and long-term health outcomes.